---
title: 'This Stops 95% of YouTube Channels From Growing'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZH_PggoBQg8'
video_id: 'ZH_PggoBQg8'
date: 2026-07-29
duration_sec: 324
---

# This Stops 95% of YouTube Channels From Growing

> Source: [This Stops 95% of YouTube Channels From Growing](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZH_PggoBQg8)

## Summary

This video reveals a five-link chain that explains why 95% of YouTube channels stagnate. The creator argues that most creators focus too heavily on production (link 4), while ignoring the crucial early steps: understanding the target audience, researching patterns, planning clickable ideas, and analyzing performance data. By mastering all five links, channels can achieve sustainable growth.

### Key Points

- **The Five-Link Chain** [00:02] — YouTube channel growth depends on five sequential links; if one breaks, the entire chain fails and growth stalls.
- **Fourth Link Misconception** [00:28] — Creators are told to make 'best videos,' but 'best' is subjective; the real focus should be on what the target audience finds interesting.
- **Link 1: Avatars** [01:09] — The most important link: deeply understand your target audience (avatars). Most creators neglect this step.
- **Link 2: Research and Patterns** [01:34] — Spend 30 minutes daily researching patterns in successful content; use tools like VidIQ to identify trending elements.
- **Pattern Example** [01:47] — Eric's viral thumbnails used a dark background and orange jumpsuit; other creators copied the pattern, demonstrating its effectiveness.
- **Views Per Hour Metric** [02:26] — Use VidIQ's 'views per hour' feature to analyze what's currently getting traction, avoiding dead videos that didn't perform.
- **Deep Analysis Technique** [02:38] — Tyler analyzed a successful script line-by-line to extract the three-act structure and retention tactics.
- **Link 3: Chain Planning** [03:04] — Take research to create an interesting idea, clickable title, and thumbnail. Avoid overly specific titles; use curiosity gaps.
- **Production as Byproduct** [03:31] — Production (link 4) should be a byproduct of earlier links—focusing too much on production without the foundation leads to failure.
- **Link 5: Data Analysis** [04:11] — After publishing, analyze title/thumbnail performance, attention graph, comments, and session time to iterate.
- **Detach from Emotion** [04:37] — Detach from video performance; ask why it succeeded or failed and apply lessons to the next video.
- **No Magic Number** [05:04] — There is no set number of videos; success comes from consistently understanding and engaging your audience across all five links.

### Conclusion

YouTube growth is not about making one great video but repeating a process of understanding, researching, planning, producing, and analyzing. The five-link chain framework helps creators diagnose why their growth is stuck and how to systematically improve.

## Transcript

the youtube chain and when one of the five links breaks the whole thing falls five links breaks the whole thing falls apart so ends your chance fast growth of you are going to realize that the reason the growth of your channel is so
static is because you've only been focusing on this part of the chain maybe that bit and i'm afraid a two link chain is useless scooby-doo would never have been able to help bad guys with that but luckily you're also going to learn
these two channels did but before we get into that let's reveal the biggest problem you have right now which is the fourth link on our chain making videos you've been told countless times before make the best videos and you'll grow but
the best videos means different things to different people but does that mean best story or be the most informative of all of those things well actually videos on youtube are the ones your target audience are interested enough to
grow because in order to find out what your target audience finds interesting four sections of the chain have to be your main focus before you can make the best video possible now you're probably wondering what those sections are so let
me reveal the first one to you and this is the most important one it's about what i call your avatars for growth you have to understand what type of content and that's what holds the majority of creators back they don't focus here
anywhere near enough how many times have i said to you why would our viewers care about that in the last 30 days 4.563 million i wish she was joking but how do you
link in the chain if you want to transform your channel in two months then start researching and looking for patterns 30 minutes a day this is what doing all of the time and you'll notice the results of them doing it too for
here which blew up eric suddenly made this thumbnail and then someone else and then another dark mysterious background and an orange jumpsuit became a pattern on youtube the top creators all tried to harness why because they noticed it
worked on a human level everyone was at it even the germans it's not about making a carbon copy though originality is still important now what's cool is to up my vid iq to track who i consider to be the best youtubers in the world and
then just scroll through that helps me up on together but if you do this you need to make sure you're learning from content that works not the videos people made that didn't and actually that's
where it gets a little bit confusing especially when every video a creator thousands of views to get around this you want to use the views per hour feature on vid iq and then establish what's getting a lot of views now so you
don't analyze dead videos that didn't actually do well in terms of reaching a new audience or you could go to a whole new level on this and do what tyler does so i downloaded this airac script and i analyzed it line by line to break down
how he uses the three act structure and the retention tactics he uses then you chain planning this is where you take all the information you've learned from way to put it into a video the first step is to have an interesting idea you
work out a thumbnail and title they will click on be careful though because this because you know how awesome your video is but your avatars won't so go and look at the research and work you've done on them and then ask yourself how do i make
this information clickable to them because a video title stuffed with keywords that says exactly what it's about is often too specific so there's might happen and that's what gets clicks when youtube recommends your videos then
you move on to planning your videos story information and creative elements and work out how to make the best video on this topic you possibly can which focus all their energy on the fourth link production and as i said at the
start this should be a byproduct of all of the other links production might take for many of us including myself it's the process apart from sometimes editing takes ages but let's just forget i said
do this bit and then many of you will do far too much of it this is the final part of the chain when you focus on it will ensure that every time you repeat this whole process you get better and better here you have to use the data
how interesting your viewers found your title and thumbnail and video idea by certain points and then you look at your attention and you ask yourself how good entertained you check your comments to see if you hit your comment goals and if
reaction from your audience and then you need to establish if you manage to get people to watch another video after because we don't want one video to get watched ever we want people to watch 10 in a row because that's what makes
of the most obvious signs you have that you've managed to achieve that all i'll number to 20 and after you release the video detach all emotion from its performance and if it did badly just ask why and react to that in your next video
and if it did well ask why and then make sure you build on that people say you need to make hundreds of videos on youtube to get traction but actually i understand humans and make videos they find interesting time and time again
there's no magic number to aim for now that could be ten videos for one person journeys will be different just don't hit record and expect different results if you're not hitting each five parts of the chain and don't ignore this video
section two of the chain and show you how to turn research into highly clickable video ideas oh and i also got chased by a bear